Mother warned her school going child,

Look over your shoulders my dear,

Everyone’s touch is not as safe as our embrace.

Workshop on ‘Good Touch and Bad Touch’ 

At TJIS, Kanpur

On Saturday, 29^th September, 2018

 

At some city schools though, the good touch-bad touch programme is already being implemented in myriad ways. Yes, it is indeed important to teach younger kids who are in the most vulnerable group. They might not even realise which ‘touch’ isn’t good and even if they do, they might not know or have the confidence to speak about it, let alone confront the person. 

At our school, we realized the need to empower younger children with such knowledge. The Jain International School organised a workshop for Grades 1^st to 8^th on Saturday, 29^th September, 2018 in two sessions, i.e., for junior school and middle school. The students were explained about the difference between ‘good touch’ and ‘bad touch’ through a small role-play which was a good platform to interact with the students. The aforementioned areas were discussed in detail with documentaries on each area.

A video on ‘Good Touch and Bad Touch’ was played at the workshop followed by clippings of a relevant episode of ‘Satyameva Jayate’. One important observation that came out of the television episode was the reaction of caregivers to a child who confides about the abuse to the parents. A parent must not be critical, dismissive or angry, but instead act on a child’s complaint. The child must be made to feel that his parent will not brush this matter aside and for that purpose, parents too need to be trained.

Such workshops would be welcomed by parents. As we saw in the television serial, younger children are soft targets. Parents may not be everywhere to protect their children. Nowadays, we send our children to tuition, extra-curricular classes, they travel by autos or buses and there are multiple ways of exposure to outside world. Children must be taught to recognize and protect themselves against these dangers from an early age.

Respected Principal, Mr. M.K. Panda, Senior Headmistress, Ms. Deepa Singh and Junior Headmistress, Ms. Rekha Singh addressed the students and told them about good touch and bad touch.

The children were happy to learn about ‘Good Touch and Bad Touch’ and how to approach the problem. The workshop was a success in terms of participation and learning opportunities and the children were happy with it.